Monday, February 28, 2011

The weather was awful this weekend, especially Saturday! It pour, all day, heavily. I have entered a show but I was too lazy (!!) to go. When I entered the show, it was meant for pre-Crufts practice but I just haven't got any energy left to go out for another long day! I was really lazy and wanted to lie in bed all day. What's wrong with me? Poor Colin and the dogs were soak to their skin when they went out walking. Good job I have a good husband that I can send out walking the dogs in the rain. LOL

Yesterday, we went to Little Revel Ends for another Lee Windeatt's training day. I've booked up for the whole day, morning with Sipzie and afternoon with the boys. After a good rest on Saturday, I restored my energy to run 6 hours on Sunday!

This is little Miss Sipzie's first proper full training day. I wasn't sure if she is ready for a three hours training session but I like training on the carpet, so I thought I'll give it a go and have any of the boys standby, just in case she can't cope. Sipzie was coping very well, eventhough she easily got distracted by the food from other handlers but I managed to get her to pay attention to me. I must remembered to bring a crate for our next training. I have taught her the "crate game" and she is loving it. When I had trouble with her paying too much attention to other handlers and their food at Club training, I took the crate and played "crate game" with her and it worked a wonder! So, this is now in my note.

Also, Sipzie is coping well or can I say even better on carpet. I've noticed she jump clean every single time. This is a big step for us. At home and at Club, she only jump small height; I sometimes put an odd pole up to medium but she knocked the Medium down every single time. I thought she isn't ready and do not want to knock her self-confidence off. Yesterday, there is another Medium sheltie there, Saffie is already competing, so she is jumping medium height; and another young Border Collie Ballet jumping medium; so Sipzie automatically goes into Medium category. I was so worried at our first sequence but she was jumping well at that height. I am so glad and proud that she is jumping well on Medium height and still not losing her speed. Maybe I can start putting another odd pole up to practice at home?

We did a lot of things that we have never done at class. Sipzie and Ballet are the only two young ones out there and the rest are already competing. It's good that Sipzie and Ballet "don't" do weave just yet, so we can practice on some other easier sequences.

We have learned to teach the dog to work independently. This is what I need for Sipzie. This could be our weakest point at the moment. She is clingy and glue to me most of the time. With her speed, if I can get her to work ahead and look ahead, it would be good for both of us as I cannot run fast. We work quite a bit with a tunnel underneath the Dog Walk; this means the handler got stuck on the other side of the DW and the dog needs to look ahead after she comes out from the tunnel. It was quite challenging for me and Sipzie and she wanted to come back to me instead of doing the jump after the tunnel but with the help of her favourite toy, it works!

We've also got to practiced all the front crosses and pull through. Gosh! Have I improve on my pull through or what? I managed to get Sipzie to do all the pull through and this is her first time doing a pull through!! There are a lot of room for improvements and I have noticed from the video that I have made quite a lot of silly mistakes with her, the most unbearable one is our startline wait is never consistent! I need to make a big note out of that!!! Oh, and how clumsy I am with her, we nearly clashed into each other all the times!!!

here is some clips from the training day:

Sadly, the sunny weather didn't stay long, just before we finished the morning session, it turned cloudy and windy, soon, the sky opened up! I was hoping the rain will stop before the afternoon session starts. Of course it didn't! I had to train in the rain for three hours. I have to keep swapping between and Saturn and Sizzle, so none of them get very wet and cold.

Saturn didn't work terribly well, not sure if it is the rain or the carpet, he wasn't even half of his normal speed :( On the other hand, Sizzle worked very well in the bitterly cold rainy day. He really did the small/medium handlers proud though. We got to run this sequence (see video), the handler got stuck on the other side of the DW again, the dog has to go through the tunnel to find the weave with See-Saw on its way. All the big dogs did really well, none of the dogs were looking at the See-Saw at all and they all weave beautifully; sadly, none of the medium dogs managed the weave as they either look back for the handler or go up the see-saw, so do the other small dogs. I was last up, no pressure. I wasn't sure if Sizzle is going to manage to find the weave pole eventhough I know he works well independently but I could only try. You can hear all the cheering in the video as he is the only small dog that did it! I am a proud owner of that little dog :)

Saturday, February 26, 2011

I was quite busy these last two weeks, tried to fit myself in with some trainings and practice on the carpet. I went back to Little Revel Ends last Friday to play with Sizzle on the carpet. The first time we went there, he cannot find the grip and his stride was messy, so I thought I will spend 10-20min just to play ball him, encourage him to chase and run as fast as he can on the carpet. He wasn't up to it though, he wants to play agility also :(

Sizzle was not impress!

The best thing about this practice venue is the arena is all weather proof. Friday's weather was cloudy but it was dry, that's the main thing! I spent most of the time practice with Sipzie, I want to get her to use to work in all different equipments and places. She was great. She is not worry at all, in fact she was happy to work with me. She is tunnel crazy, super crazy. I can now stand still from a long distance (3-4 jumps away) and send her into the tunnel without moving myself (what a great achievement of me not moving!). Her upright weave is still not quite there yet. They haven't got a V weave, so I have to put the stripes around it to practice.

Sipzie is quite a strong powerful girl, when she goes into the tunnel, you can hear her going through so fast and after a few times in and out of tunnel, she somehow move the sand bags that go around the entrance and exit of the tunnel! I didn't know she is so powerful until then :)

I looked "chilled" in the first part of the video because when I get excited, she try to bite my arm for her excitement :(

We went to Lee's training on Saturday, again, I enjoyed it very much. I tried to work Sipzie on the easy sequences, she worked really well in a new place and new equipment! That's the second part of the video above.

Friday, February 25, 2011

We had gorgeous weather yesterday, it's like spring day, warm and sunny! How I wish everyday is just like yesterday. I even feel like having a BBQ!

After our agility class, we went walking at Oxshott Common with The Hennessy House. It was a brilliant relaxing walk, time to catch up with Ann after a long time. All the dogs were happily running about ...

The KNIGHTs Shelties + The Hennessy Terriers

The Hennessy kids with the shelties and terriers

so happy together!

Sing, always a leader of the pack :)))

I was so glad that I have my camera with me and was able to capture some rather nice photos :)

The youngest of The Hennessy Terrier, Fizzle (posh name: Shandon's Busy Little Fizzy), she lives up to her name and is a very busy little young lady. We believe she has sheltie in her :)

this is Ink, posh name Shandon's Slinky Little Inky. A great little character and a lot to give in Agility! I am sure Ann is very proud with her!

and this is their nearly 14 years old Tippex, posh name Shandon's Tip Top Tippex. He has retired from Agility and enjoying his lovely walks

this is how Ink & Fizz always play

my handsome Saturn

Seagull enjoyed his day out, eventhough I have to drag him to keep moving. He is not the oldest of mine but he slow down tremendously after 20 minutes walk

Sing is my oldest but he is always on the GO, even with his injury on the paw and is always HAPPY and SMILEY. That's my boy!

crazy Little Miss Sipzie, she loves to join the terriers for a bit of fun

poor girlie is loosing all her coat, luckily is getting warmer as she has no coat at the moment

he has become camera shy lately :(

flowers from our garden:

we have quite a few early daffodil blossom in our garden

this is Colins's favourite Heartbreaker Hebe

I am surprised to see we still have snowdrops in our garden, I thought the dogs have damaged all of them by now :)

I love crocus but I don't know why they grew everywhere in the garden and sadly, they have very short live with us, everyday when the dogs go out, they tramp on them and that's it :(

Monday, February 21, 2011

I found a pea size lump under Saturn's skin, near his shoulder blade on Saturday night. Thanks to Colin being away at his friends for the night and Saturn "huggle" right up to me and I suddenly felt the lump and jumped up in the middle of the night! You guess it, I have been worried since and couldn't sleep for two nights. I took him to the vet this morning but my usual vet is not there today. The vet acted like a clown (to me), he didn't think this is serious at all. After so many questions of WHAT, WHY, HOW, IF ... he came up with few possibilities, fat? cyst? benign tumour?

We out rule the microchipped as we found the chip in a different area of the shoulder; we also out rule the annual booster which he had in December, on the opposite side of the shoulder; he then out rule the fat as the lump is hard and movable. He told me not to worry and leave it for a few weeks to see if it grows! WHAT? I probably acting quite rude and panic because I realised I started to raise my voice with unhappy tone. NOT TO WORRY? He must be joking! How on earth this people think a dog is only a DOG?

After me getting more aggressive, he said he could suggest needle biopsy but he don't think he can possibly get any cells or fluid out of it as the lump is too small, so better leave it for now. I then asked him, WHAT IF this is a benign tumour (touch wood!), he said let it grows bigger ... WHAT? Let it grows bigger? I nearly punch him face!

After paying nearly £50 for him to poke around Saturn and I have no answer to it! Grrrrrr ...

Wednesday, February 16, 2011

I recently discovered that Sipzie has a new talent! To destroy anything and everything when she gets excited! From Christmas Day experienced, she has chewed her fleece lead and her leather collar when left in the car for 15 minutes while we tried to sort out the stuff before getting her out; then on Boxing Day, more damaged on the pressies ...

This week, the weather has been uncertain, one day warm and sunny like Spring, the next day back to miserable wintery shower ... I always have the dog coats handy with me just in case I need them. We were out training on Sunday all day at the arena, it was miserable weather, cold, windy and wet. Since the dogs are left in the car for quite a few hours, I will put the coat on just to make sure they don't suddenly suffer the cold. I was concentrated on training the boys for Crufts, so poor Sipzie was left in the car wearing her coat and watched us in excitement. Somehow, she managed to chew her coat and damaged the webbing on the edge of the coat, grrrrrrrrrrr ...

how on earth she is able to chew that, I don't know!

To top it worst, whenever she comes for a car ride when I train the boys, more damaged. I normally hang some fleece leads on the tailgate, she somehow has chewed and broke two more since Christmas! I wish I can put a stop to that, I think I had enough of damaged done in the car! I have think of crating her but my doggy car is more than 10 years old and I do not want to spend a lot of money to custom made the cage as I never know when is the car going to pack up. Mmmmm ...

Monday, February 14, 2011

The answer is NO! I haven't done much agility since our last show at Suffolk 5 Rivers, that was well back in September 2010. I have two months off, absolutely no agility, just walking and playing with the dogs. We resume training at first week of the New Year. Saturn and Sizzle were all charged up and ready to go. They worked really well at class, I was happy. I also started to train Sipzie seriously but nothing seems to go my way to begin with but we are coping and we are working more like a Team now. I supposed I need to give ourselves some times to adjust.

I think I probably have spent too much time on Sipzie, to get her to weave and to work on a longer sequences and I have somehow ignored the boys. I have not done any extra training apart from our weekly club training. Sing is still on the rest. His paw is from bad to good and from good to worst, so he is still on the rest!

We went for a carpet training yesterday and after a couple of hours of practice, I realised how bad my handling were with the boys. Saturn is an experienced dog, Bless him, he always save me from my silly mistakes. Poor little Sizz man, he deserves a better handler! He made me looked so awful. I know I am biased, to me, he is an awesome little dog and always ready to do everything for me.

I know this is an poor excuse but my left hip seems to be "expired"! It has been bad for a few weeks now but it got worst over the last two weeks. After I came back from Helsinki, I need to hoop instead of walk at times. Running around the agility field didn't help.

Crufts is only 3 weeks away ... oh dear! I am worried!

this is my little man practice on the carpet yesterday, he "struggled" a little running on the carpet. He kept changing his stride to start with:

Thursday, February 10, 2011

He has a few business meetings with clients in Helsinki. He asked me if I would like to go and see Neon and Kriisi. What a sweet husband is he? I knew this would be a very short trip but I never say NO to meet some wonderful shelties!

I left home with a heavy heart, Sing, Saturn and Sizzle were extremely sad, the look in their eyes almost put me off from going. We arrived in Helsinki nearly midnight on Monday. Tuesday, we woke up with blizzard of snow, after breakfast, Colin off to his meetings and I wonder around locally. It was very nice walking in the snow, admiring Helsinki. To be honest, Helsinki is cover in snow and I hardly see anything other than WHITE!

I wasn't really in the mood to visit the city, I was more anxious to meet the shelties! Finally the time came and Jenna picked us up from the hotel and drove to her home. We were welcome by Hani and little Wii. Two very happy little tri girls. Hani is nearly 8 and she is so full of bean and energetic. You will think she is like a puppy. I really like her temperament, she is so outgoing and friendly and the way she plays with Wii and Neon. She is a great model for her offsprings. Wii oh Wii, she is just too cute for word! She is so bouncy and playful. There is never a dull moment for her. She is always on the go. And the handsome Neon. I really do want to sneak him into my bag and take him home. He is just something special. Like his mother, he is extremely outgoing, friendly, playful and full of energy. And there is Moona, she is one sweet sable girlie. She is probably the calmest of the lots and I caught her lying next to Colin :)

Then, we have Karol arriving with her two blue boys, Shokki and Kriisi. Shokki is the daddy to Neon and Kriisi. Oh My! He is only so tiny but very fast in the agility field. For some reason, Colin loves him very much. He thinks his two big ears are very cute. I think he is planning to sneak him into his bag :)

And Kriisi, he definitely is one very handsome boy. Lovely conformation and excellent temperament! I can't wait to have some puppies from him.

The men in blue: Neon, Shokki, Kriisi

Colin and Neon; Kriisi and me.

Kriisi and Neon's mum, Hani.

mummy Hani, Neon, daddy Shokki and Kriisi

this picture always made me smile, Hani is a very cute girl

How can I forget to take some photos of Moona? She is such a sweetheart.